BEIJING -- China railway freight carriages daily cargo rose 4.4 percent year-on-year in August due to the economy warming up, official data showed on Tuesday.

The volume is the highest since April and the year-on-year growth rate is the highest since 2012, a report from the state-owned China Railway Corporation said.

On a daily basis, 133,018 carriages were loaded in August, up 2,826 from July.

Chinese railways carried 1.42 billion passengers in the first eight months, up 10.9 percent year on year, according to the report.

China's economic growth slowed to 7.6 percent in the first six months, the weakest first-half performance in three years, but above the country's annual target of 7.5 percent.

The statistics authority in early September revised the country's growth rate for 2012 down to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent.